


Bravery

by amazinglyhorribleegg



Series: Adventure To Write Vincent and Leo In Every Fanfic Trope [3]
Category: A Way Out (Video Game)
Genre: Arachnophobia, Dialogue Heavy, Fear, Gen, How Do I Tag, No Spoilers, Nudity, One Shot, Phobias, Spiders, Wordcount: 1.000-5.000, uhh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-28
Updated: 2018-07-28
Packaged: 2019-06-17 14:25:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15463377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amazinglyhorribleegg/pseuds/amazinglyhorribleegg
Summary: What is Vincents fear, anyway?"Vincent felt his heart rate speed up at the sight of it, his whole mind coming to a screeching stop. Vincent, a forty-three-year-old man with an upcoming daughter and having escaped prison, is petrified of a spider. Yes, he knew it was stupid, but it wasn't like he could control his fear."





	Bravery

**Author's Note:**

> Warning for arachnophobia? I mean, if you read the tags or the description you would know, but still.
> 
> Uhh, barely any spoilers. In fact, all the spoilers are in the description, so I guess it's too late for a spoiler warning. Nothing other than "DiD yOU knOw vINceNt iS gONnA bE a FAtHer??!?! ANd escAPeD pRIsoN?!?!?"

"I call the shower first," Leo said as Vincent unlocked the door to their motel. It was only an overnight stay and the thought of a warm bed was greater than the fear of getting caught in the motel with the parking lot so empty it seemed like they were the only ones there. So they used fake names and passed over the smallest bills they owned to pay, making it seem like they were two normal dudes.

"Oh, no you don't," Vincent retorted, hesitating to open the door. "I get shower rights because I'm older,"

Leo scoffed. "Who said you're older?" He stared at Vincent as they walked in the room.

"Forty-three,"

"Thirty-six," Leo reluctantly answered. "But you seem to forget that I'm the one that was in prison for six months. Six months of using the prison showers,"

Vincent paused. "Rock, Paper, Scissors?" He proposed.

"Rock, Paper, Scissors is for little kids," Leo said. "Arm wrestle?"

So that's how Vincent ended up pulling the bedside table between the space of their two beds and arm wrestling Leo, the match lasting for nearly a full minute before Vincent eventually won.

"That's unfair, man! I was using my right hand," Leo complained. "Rematch,"

"We were both using our right hand, Leo. That's how it works," Vincent said slowly, picking up the lamp and clock from the ground and pushing the table back against the wall.

"Yeah but you're right-handed," Leo grumbled, obviously sour from his loss.

"You're left-handed?" Vincent asked.

"Yeah. If it was the other way around I would have won,"

"I bet you would have," Vincent said as he walked into the bathroom, still proud over his win. He closed the door behind him and stripped down, grabbing the towel from the hanger to make sure it was full sized. Even though he did win fair and square, and all he wanted was a steamy shower to loosen his aching muscles, he planned to only have a quick rinse to let Leo have a chance. Really, Vincent was dead on his feet. He was lucky Leo was as tired as he was, maybe even more, because otherwise Leo would have won the arm wrestle. With his non-dominant hand.

Vincent pulled back the curtains and looked down at the bathtub, his breath catching in his throat. In the middle of the slightly stained yellow bathtub there was a spider, and a decently large one at that. Counting in its leg span, it seemed roughly four and a half centimeters long.

Vincent felt his heart rate speed up at the sight of it, his whole mind coming to a screeching stop. Vincent, a forty-three-year-old man with an upcoming daughter and having escaped prison, is petrified of a spider. Yes, he knew it was stupid, but it wasn't like he could control his fear.

After a few moments of staring at the creature, his whole body frozen and muscles tense he finally moved, putting his arm down from where it was still grabbing onto the curtain. He took a deep breath, not letting his gaze move off of it. Okay, it was just a small spider. He's seen worse. All he needs to do is find something and smack it - no, just turn on the water and let it wash down the drain. Normally he would have called Carol, the family spider-saver in, so she could cup it with a red solo cup, slide a magazine under it and let it free far, far away from the house, but Carol wasn't here. It was just Vincent, alone, having a staring contest with the spider.

Even though the thought of letting the spider wash down the drain made his chest tighten, it was the only option available. Either hope it doesn't come crawling back for him in his sleep, or smack it with a toilet plunger, and he does NOT want to smack it with a toilet plunger. He took another deep breath, ignoring the disorientation in his head and the fuzziness behind his eyes and reached for the shower knob. Very slowly. His hand was only a handful of inches away from the shower knob when suddenly -

Oh, fuck no. Holy shit. Fuck, fuck fuCK FUCK FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUC-

The spider moved. The spider fucking moved. It's long legs awkwardly scrambling just far enough up the wall of the tub that the water wouldn't touch it if turned on. Not that the water plan was still set, anyway. Vincent felt like screaming, but instead making nothing more than an embarrassing whine as he jumped away from the bath. He had to remind himself to breathe as he backed up until his back was flush with the counter. He could have handled it if it was just a baby spider, he could have, but not that. Not a nearly two inch long spider with a conscious, no way in hell.

Vincent tried to think of someone he could call to but his mind was fully occupied with the murderous spider. Someone... Carol? No... Someone who can take care of the spider before Vincent has a heart attack...

"Leo!" Vincent's voice sounded more strained than he was expecting, like he just got the wind punched out of him. With how out of breath and dizzy he was, he almost believed it.

"Yeah?" Leo responded from where he was sitting on his bed. He was starting to get suspicious of the time it took for Vincent to get in the shower, but it truly wasn't his business what the older man did before his showers.

"Can you come here?" Vincent called. Leo placed the TV remote down on his bed and stood up, now a bit worried.

He nearly went to open the door before he paused. "You're not naked, are you?" Leo asked and Vincent suddenly remembered that yes, he was.

Vincent grabbed the towel from off the wall and wrapped it around his waist, saying "No." Leo turned the doorknob and opened the door, eyes looking up at Vincent who looked like he just saw a ghost. Vincent's eyes snapped up from the bath to look at Leo, the look of barely-masked fear etched into his face.

"What's going on?" Leo asked, looking around the bathroom for something that could have caused Vincent to freak out.

Vincent tried to respond, instead only a whine coming out. He coughed slightly to cover it up and pointed at the bathtub. Leo's eyes followed his gaze into the bathtub, cringing slightly when he saw the brown spider inside it.

"The spider?" Leo asked, looking from the spider to Vincent. Vincent nodded meekly, coughing again. Leo raised an eyebrow. "Don't tell me that you're afraid of a little spider, Vince,"

"Just - Just, can you get rid of it for me?" Vincent asked, his voice higher than usual.

"You... you just want me to spray it with the shower head, or...?" Leo proposed, looking at the spider. Sure, it was a little bigger than most, and it was kind of disgusting, but Vincent was way too freaked out to have a normal reaction.

"No!" Vincent said quickly. "You can't let it go down the drain. Can't you just... like, cup it and let it go in the parking lot?" Vincent waved his hands around in an attempt to explain.

"You want me to fucking cup that thing and carry it outside?"

"You've heard those stories about... about spiders climbing up drains and stuff. There's a whole damn song about it. Just -" He looked up and met Leo's eyes. "Please?"

It only took a few seconds of Vincent's puppy dog eyes for Leo to give in, sighing and turning around to find a cup and thick paper. "You know that the song goes _down came the rain and washed the spider out,_ right?" Leo called as he grabbed a mug from the kitchen cupboard, getting a magazine off of the kitchen table. He turned and walked back to Vincent and the spider. "For being so scared of spiders, you sure are staying in the same room as it for longer than you need to," Leo pointed out, attempting to figure out how he's going to trap it with the awkward angle.

"I don't want it to escape. If I look away it's going to move again," Vincent muttered, his voice nearly to its normal, raspy tone. Leo sighed and shook his head, quickly placing the cup over the spider and moving to put the magazine under it. He picked it up, turning to face Vincent who flinched when he saw the mug.

"Really, Vince? Arachnophobia?" Leo asked, walking to the front door and hearing Vincent follow him. "I mean, I'm afraid of heights but at least falling off a fifty story building would kill me, unlike a tiny spider," He opened the door and walked outside, Vincent standing in the doorway.

"They're creepy. Too many legs, too unpredictable," Vincent watched Leo place down the magazine and cup in the grass next to the parking lot, leaving the items there with the cup open so the spider could crawl out. "Carol would normally do this for me, y'know?" Vincent smiled and let Leo in, closing the door behind him.

"Really?" Leo went to go sit back down on his bed. "You going to hop in the shower or what?"

Vincent paused, looking back at the bathroom. "Uh, you wanna go first?"

Leo smiled and stood up. "Damn right I wanna go first, because I ain't afraid of no spider crawling up the pipes," Leo laughed, making his way to the bathroom. He closed the door and it was only a minute before Vincent heard the water turn on.

Vincent grabbed the remote off of Leo's bed and sat down on his own, the stress from the spider incident slowly draining. He switched through channels, trying to find something to watch. Everything was fine, until he saw something small move across the floor.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I hope you find the idea of Vincent being terrified of spiders just about as funny as I do. I have accidently seen way too many creepy pictures of monster spiders while trying to search up about arachnophobia. The things I do for fanfictions...  
> Comments and kudos are always appreciated!


End file.
